As the Legislature gets ready to start a special session this afternoon to amend the state's safe haven law, one senator says he will not introduce the bill he had planned to today.
JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, November 13, 2008 6:00 pm
As the Legislature gets ready to start a special session this afternoon to amend the state’s safe haven law, one senator says he will not introduce the bill he had planned to today.
Omaha Sen. Rich Pahls intended to introduce an infant safe haven bill similar to one he had sponsored in 2007.
That bill (LB6), which was killed last year, called for an age limit on abandoned infants of 30 days. It also included a requirement for public education on the law, among other specifics.
Pahls said he had asked for an opinion by Attorney General Jon Bruning on whether the bill would be within the call for the special session. “The call” is what is set out by the governor as the goal of the session.
“The last thing I wanted was for us to proceed with a bill that was too broad, have its constitutionality challenged and we end up with the age limit being 18 years again,” Pahls said in a prepared statement.
Pahls’ bill would have changed more than the age limit for safe haven. It would have narrowed the wording of the bill, to designate who could abandon a child, that the crime of “abandonment” would not be charged, and that the appropriate authorities to be called were the state Department of Health and Human Services and law enforcement.
The bill also would have defined the type of information a hospital employee should collect from the parent leaving the baby.
Gov. Dave Heineman called the special session to “reduce the maximum age of children to whom the statute applies,” and to appropriate funds to pay for the session, estimated to be about $70,000.
In his opinion, Bruning said the very limited nature of the call meant all other provisions of Pahls’ bill exceeded it.
Pahls said he did not want to muddy the waters or complicate the issue “when such a law will have such a profound effect on children.”
The senator said he was confident there would be sufficient discussion during Monday’s hearing and on the floor about what the right age should be, and the final bill would reflect that.
Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.